Characterization of nuclear effects in muon-neutrino scattering on hydrocarbon with a measurement of final-state kinematics and correlations in charged-current pionless interactions at T2K

K Abe,G Barr,T Nakadaira,C Mcgrew,D Coplowe,S Bienstock,L Berns,J Schwehr,E Mazzucato,Y Oyama,M Tada,A Longhin,J Kisiel,J Kameda,T Campbell,S Manly,M Mezzetto,P Stowell,P Dunne,O Drapier,S Bhadra,D Sgalaberna,S Berkman,A Bravar,T Golan,T Kajita,T Ishii,B Quilain,T Tsukamoto,J Holeczek,S Johnson,A Cervera,A Chappell,D Shaw,A Mefodiev,L Haegel,C Giganti,N Yershov,S Hirota,M Pavin,A Ariga,A Rychter,M Antonova,T Vladisavljevic,M Khabibullin,A Pritchard,Y Hayato,M Buizza Avanzini,T Hasegawa,D Wark,R Tacik,C Bronner,M Friend,C Andreopoulos,L Magaletti,C Metelko,C Wret,S Nakayama,A Cudd,L Koch,S Bolognesi,L Zambelli,E Scantamburlo,K Niewczas,A Hiramoto,M Shiozawa,Y Takeuchi,M Tzanov,S Bordoni,C Densham,X Li,K Nakayoshi,F Di Lodovico,K Okumura,Y Petrov,K Kowalik,M Kabirnezhad,O Mineev,E Rondio,C Nielsen,S Suvorov,T Hiraki,D Cherdack,A Blondel,R Shah,Y Suda,G Vasseur,S Yen,Y Fukuda,T Sekiguchi,P Martins,C Vilela,M Lawe,A Ereditato,K Nishikawa,F Gizzarelli,J Calcutt,R Wendell,D Karlen,B Rossi,T Lou,P Lasorak,G Collazuol,J Dumarchez,T Lindner,A Izmaylov,Y Seiya,T Katori,R Kurjata,C Pistillo,C Barry,A Minamino,A Khotjantsev,T Ovsyannikova,H Kakuno,K Sakashita,A Shaikhiev,C Checchia,Y Fujii,P Novella,M Laveder,K Iwamoto,S Moriyama,A Missert,Y Yamada,M Miura,S Emery-Schrenk,P Paudyal,S Dolan,J Kim,K Scholberg,A Konaka,M Gonin,G Fiorillo,G Christodoulou,K Nakamura,C Nantais,V Berardi,L Pickering,T Hayashino,C Yanagisawa,K Mavrokoridis,J Harada,M Scott,M Hartz,M Batkiewicz,M Hogan,M Ziembicki,S Zsoldos,S Martynenko,M Malek,V Paolone,J Nowak,E Radicioni,V Palladino,A Suzuki,C Wilkinson,V Matveev,J Zalipska,G De Rosa,M Ikeda,H Sekiya,T Okusawa,F Sánchez,C Riccio,Y Koshio,T Dealtry,T Feusels,F Shaker,W Uno,S Ban,Z Vallari,M Barbi,B Jamieson,Y Nagai,Y Nishimura,T Koga,M Yokoyama,A Zykova,K Yamamoto,A Weber,E Kearns,T Maruyama,T Kutter,Y Azuma,H Kim,S King,M Licciardi,T Yano,A Zalewska,Y Kudenko,A Knight,M Zito,T Nakaya,L Ludovici,L Labarga,J Imber,M Mccarthy,W Oryszczak,M Smy,D Hansen,Y Wang,S Mine,B Bourguille,A Knox,N Chikuma,M Yu,T Radermacher,L Maret,T Stewart,D Brailsford,P Hamacher-Baumann,F Hosomi,I Lamont,S Yamasu,N Mccauley,M Nakahata,T Thakore,E D Zimmerman ,Yosuke Ashida ,C François ,W Y ,C W Walter ,J T Haigh ,M G Catanesi ,Kendall Mahn ,L L Kormos ,M O Wascko ,Hidekazu Tanaka ,G J Barker ,H A Tanaka ,Shigeki Aoki ,Z Liptak ,E S Pinzon Guerra ,M J Wilking ,J P Coleman ,Mathieu Lamoureux ,J P Lopez ,R A Intonti ,A C Ruggeri ,John M Walker ,P P Koller ,J L Amey ,A Kaboth ,J F Martin ,A K Ichikawa ,M R Vagins ,Shin Sasaki ,P Przewłocki ,John H Morrison ,E Reinherz‐Aronis ,C K Jung ,Yuta Nakanishi ,A Dąbrowska ,N C Hastings ,Jochen Steinmann ,D R Hadley ,J T Sobczyk ,W H Toki ,R A Owen ,Stefan Roth ,M Posiadała-Zezula ,S B Boyd ,H M O’keeffe ,Toshio Kobayashi ,M Rayner ,Atsushi Takeda ,Ryo Tamura ,Б Popov ,G A Fiorentini ,S L Cartwright ,A Yu Smirnov ,T Wąchała ,Yoshihiro Suzuki ,К Заремба ,P Jönsson ,R P Litchfield ,Antonio Díaz ,K Duffy ,D J Payne ,X.-G Lu ,H W Sobel ,Toru Ishida ,R M Berner ,L F Thompson ,A D Marino ,J R Wilson ,S M Oser ,Miao Jiang ,A J Finch ,Takashi Inoue ,L H V Anthony ,R J Wilson ,Shuo Cao ,S R Dennis ,K S Mcfarland ,P F Denner ,J L Palomino ,Daisuke Fukuda ,J Łagoda ,S Suzuki ,P N Ratoff ,T Mueller

doi:10.1103/physrevd.98.032003

Abstract

This paper reports measurements of final-state proton multiplicity, muon and proton kinematics, and their correlations in charged-current pionless neutrino interactions, measured by the T2K ND280 near detector in its plastic scintillator (C$_8$H$_8$) target. The data were taken between years 2010 and 2013, corresponding to approximately 6$\times10^{20}$ protons on target. Thanks to their exploration of the proton kinematics and of kinematic imbalances between the proton and muon kinematics, the results offer a novel probe of the nuclear-medium effects most pertinent to the (sub-)GeV neutrino-nucleus interactions that are used in accelerator-based long-baseline neutrino oscillation measurements. These results are compared to many neutrino-nucleus interaction models which all fail to describe at least part of the observed phase space. In case of events without a proton above a detection threshold in the final state, a fully consistent implementation of the local Fermi gas model with multinucleon interactions gives the best description of the data. In the case of at least one proton in the final state the spectral function model agrees well with the data, most notably when measuring the kinematic imbalance between the muon and the proton in the plane transverse to the incoming neutrino. A clear indication of existence of multinucleon interactions is observed. The effect of final-state interactions is also discussed.

Highlights

Neutrino interactions with nuclei are the experimental tool exploited to provide evidence of neutrino oscillations [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] and to search for leptonic CP-symmetry violation [9,10,11,12]
Thanks to their exploration of the proton kinematics and of imbalances between the proton and muon kinematics, the results offer a novel probe of the nuclear-medium effects most pertinent to theGeV neutrino-nucleus interactions that are used in accelerator-based long-baseline neutrino oscillation measurements
Various additional neutrino event generators are used in the analyses presented in this paper in order to both test the robustness of the results

Summary

Introduction

Neutrino interactions with nuclei are the experimental tool exploited to provide evidence of neutrino oscillations [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] and to search for leptonic CP-symmetry violation [9,10,11,12]. A precise measurement of the oscillation parameters relies on the understanding of the incoming neutrino beam flux, of the scattering of neutrinos with nucleons, and of the nuclear medium effects in the nucleus. As previously discussed, these observables exploit the kinematic imbalance between the outgoing lepton and highest momentum proton in the plane transverse to the incoming neutrino, which can act as a powerful probe of nuclear effects both in the initial state and in FSI. The binning is chosen such that the statistical error is comparable to the systematic error and that the bin widths are comparable to the detector resolution

Results

Discussion

Conclusion